Insurance bosses fined over sham Indigenous policies

Résumé détaillé

Directors of an insurance company that sold sham funeral policies to Indigenous people for decades are continuing to face their fate in court.

Former directors of a disgraced funeral insurance company which ripped off thousands of Aboriginal Australians have been fined.

The Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund, owned by collapsed insurance company Youpla, sold junk funeral policies to Indigenous people across Australia for decades.

It targeted communities where English was not the first language and others with low literacy levels.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission launched Federal Court action against the company and, subsequently, its five directors in hearings beginning in 2020.

On Wednesday, Justice Geoffrey Kennett handed down fines to three of Youpla's former directors - Jonathan Law, Michael Wilson and Geoffrey Clayton - after they admitted breaches of the Corporations Act.

They were handed fines of $50,000, $20,000 and $20,000, respectively, and were also ordered to pay thousands of dollars towards ASIC's legal costs.

They were also each barred from managing a corporation for between five to 10 years.

Youpla was exposed during the 2018 banking royal commission but not before thousands paid for inappropriate plans, including through Centrepay, where money is automatically deducted from social security payments.

The Federal Court handed Youpla a $1.2 million fine in September 2023 for misrepresenting junk funeral policies.

Début de l'article, extrait de PerthNow. Pour lire la suite, ouvrez l'article chez le média.